my engagement in conversation with issues and concerns related to my vocation as a seminary lecturer. Opinions expressed in this blog are strictly my personal views and do not represent the official position of the seminary

Friday, 3 December 2010

English...Oh...English

The British Library is currently having a rather interesting exhibition that I recently attended: Evolving English: One Language, Many Voices. That sets me thinking about how English can be rather confusing, in its make up, pronunciation and the understanding of its meaning.

For example - take the name of places.Gloucester is pronounced with silent "ce", as in "Glouster".Likewise, Leicester Square in London is also pronounced with silent "ce", as in "Leister Square."But Cirencester is pronounced in full, as in "Ci-ren-ces-ter."

Another rather interesting example about people and places.Those from England are called EnglishThose from Scotland are called ScottishThose from Ireland are called Irishbut those from Wales are not called Welshish or Welish. And a Welsh person is not from Welshland.

Let's think about the church now.Church of England is AnglicanChurch of Wales is AnglicanChurch of Northern Ireland is AnglicanBut Church of Scotland is not Anglican but Presbyterian!!

Finally, this is what I like best. I know of a single woman who celebrated her 50th birthday recently. After her birthday, she insisted that everyone should address her as Madam followed by her surname, and not Miss followed by her surname, as has always been her practice all along. The reason? She was told that those who are 50s and above should only be known as Madam to reflect one's status or rank in life. I think it is wise of me not to mention the other meanings of Madam as well.

43 comments:

Quite good.English has always beenan intresting language and the factis that it is versatile and different and that may be the reason why it is described as 'onelanguage with many voices.English offers an identity to people fromall countries as said in the post.

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haha well, I had to learn english as my second language (after Russian) and let me tell you.. "English... Oh... English" is a common phrase around this house! It's a beautiful language with many rules and even more exceptions to those rules.

I wonder what it would be like if our ancestors never built the Tower of Babylon and we still had only one language to speak :P

American English is my only language and you did a great job explaining some very simple reasons why many folks have trouble with speech. I am a very literal person, for that reason I had to have speech therapy as a child. One other point I must make is the contributions from Latin and Greek has made to the English language. Also some meanings of root words change because on time and traditions. Agree???

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About Me

I am a Christ-follower by calling, a Lecturer in New Testament Studies and Assistant Director of Postgraduate Studies at Seminari Theoloji Malaysia by vocation, and a lover of the New Testament by passion. I am also an ordained minister of the Evangelical Free Church of Malaysia.